MOST JAMAICANS are unable to determine in their minds which of the nation's two major political parties is more religious.
However, according to the latest Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson poll, the governing People's National Party (PNP) is believed by three times as many persons to be more religious than the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
From a sample of 1,008 persons, Johnson and his team of researchers found that, based on what was known about the two parties, 51 per cent did not know which was the most religious.
AMBIVALENCE
Another 37 per cent of persons said they considered the PNP more religious, while 12 per cent of persons said they saw greater piety within the JLP.
Dr. Henley Morgan, chairman of Praise City International in Trench Town, St. Andrew, said he believed the poll results had to do with current Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's recent religious pronouncements, which were prefaced by her inaugural prayer on March 30.
He stressed, however, that the results also indicated that there was a great deal of ambivalence towards the presence of religion within the political party institution.
"People don't see the party as religious, but (see religion in) the leader," Dr. Morgan said.
Since her inauguration Mrs. Simpson Miller has regularly invoked God in her public utterances.
But Opposition Leader Bruce Golding has chided the Prime Minister for some of those comments and her use of religion in political discussion.
The poll, with a plus or minus three per cent margin of error, was conducted on May 13 and 14 in 84 communities across the island's 14 parishes.
SAMPLING
Of those persons included in the sample, 26 per cent were in full-time jobs, 14 per cent part-time and 33 per cent self-employed.
Twenty per cent were in the 18 to 24 age group, 29 per cent in the 25 to 34 age group, 24 per cent in the 35 to 44 range and 13 per cent between ages 45 and 54.
Males made up 52 per cent of the sample and females 48 per cent.
Dr. Morgan said he did not believe there was any harm in political parties not appearing to be, or being religious as it was far more important to be moral and exercise good governance.
